失 - The Big Professor Is Always LOSING しつ

Readings & Meanings:

うしな (う)

しつ

to lose, slip

Common Usage:

失敗

失い

失意

失う

失礼

Examples:

失敗は成功のもと。

彼は家財全てを失い、失意のうちに死んだ。

事故から30年後、彼女は失った記憶を取り戻した。

これから病院に行きますので、今日はこれで失礼します。

Translations:

Every failure is a stepping-stone to success.

He lost all of his family's possessions and died in despair.

30 years after the accident, she recovered her memories.

I'm afraid I must be going, because I have to go to the hospital.

Radicals:

Well, Kanji Networks can't seem to make up its mind. On the one hand, it says that the radical is 大, which I can certainly see, but on the other, it says that the pictograph shows a hand (手) with a slanting line to the right, indicating something slipping from a hand.

I think this kanji looks like the sen in sensei, though, and hopefully that will help me to remember it.

Bonus:

I knew this kanji was part of "failure" (失敗), but I didn't realize until now that it was the SHITSU in SHITSUREI (失礼)!

If you don't know how to use 失礼, you've never worked in Japan. At the end of every day, when you leave the office (at 10:00 or so), you have to say "O-saki ni shitsurei shimasu," meaning "I'm sorry I'm so rude as to leave before you."

It's one of the first phrases I learned in Japan, the day after I arrived. And, until now, I didn't know the kanji for it. 失礼. Wow.

References:

http://sokasoka.blogspot.com/2007/06/jlpt-2-kanji.html
http://www.kanjinetworks.com/tnetwork/TAT.html#TAT23
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/u.htm